Atlantic Network Abilities for Towns in Local Economy

Main menu

Tag Archives: Common Agricultural Policy

This pocketbook provides the reader with information on how the food chain evolves in Europe; it presents a range of statistical indicators for each step of this chain from the farm to the fork, passing from production on the farm, through food processing, to logistical activities such as importing, transporting and distributing, before reaching the end consumer either through purchases made in retail outlets or through the consumption of food and drink in cafés, bars and restaurants. Its aim is to give a summary of the data currently available within Eurostat s Food: from farm to fork database. The publication structure follows closely the approach adopted by the European Commission on food safety policy, and the indicators presented have been developed with this in mind. This publication may be viewed as a compendium of the data available within Eurostat on the food chain

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been based on three types of solidarity since 1962: financial solidarity between Member States, Community preference and the solidarity of the Community towards farmers. These types of solidarity have been led astray or weakened over time while new measures favourable to European cohesion have been incorporated into the CAP in the 1970s and the 1980s: compensation of natural handicaps, food programme for the most deprived persons, rural development.
Whilst it was a pioneer in European solidarity, the CAP causes a division which peaks regularly during budgetary negotiations. The distribution of direct aid (a third of the EU’s expenditure) crystallises criticisms: it is more advantageous to big farming countries to the detriment of rich countries with little agriculture; it benefits regions in different ways according to their territorial specialisation; it foresees a different system between the EU15 and EU12 until 2013. This situation gives the impression that European public money is badly spent.
This policy paper proposes the state of European solidarity mechanisms within the CAP, evaluates the relevance of it in the modern context and comes up with proposals to reform them after 2013.

Voting on a draft own-initiative report by German MEP Albert Dess (European People’s Party), the committee said that the EU’s farm budget should be kept at least at its current level when the policy is reformed from 2014, “in order to meet the challenges of food security, environmental protection and climate change”. The CAP budget is currently worth €55 billion a year and amounts to 40% of the bloc’s total annual spending.

The report represents the lawmakers’ first response to a European Commission paper on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2020, published in November 2010.

Fairer distribution
The committee further noted that CAP money should be distributed more fairly between member states and farmers. They demanded that in future “each EU country should receive a minimum percentage of EU average payments,” with direct payments reserved for “active farmers”, the definition of which is yet to be agreed upon.
The ‘old’ member states of the EU-15 currently receive more financial support per farmer than the newer member states, and some of the payments go to wealthy landowners who do not necessarily use their land for production.
MEPs also backed Commission proposals to introduce a ceiling on direct payments per farmer and suggested that the size, the employment record and the degree of environmental protection of each farm should be taken into account when deciding on payments.